Justin Rigg (Jeff Houchin Photo)
The Kentucky football program has been blessed down through the years with some excellent tight ends. Unfortunately for most of them they were never in an offense that allowed them to showcase their abilities to catch the ball.
James Whalen in 1999 and Jacob Tamme in 2007 were a couple of exceptions to this rule. I’m sure the current group of four tight ends on the Kentucky roster would love to prove to be exceptions also.
But to be an exception a player needs to be in an offense that targets the tight end as something more than an afterthought check down. So far that hasn’t happened in the Eddie Gran era at UK. If you read my previous article here at vaughtsviews I explained why I think that is. But knowing that the Wildcats currently have four exceptional tight ends on the roster might change that way of thinking.
If an offensive coordinator was looking for guys that are true SEC caliber physical specimens that can also block and catch the ball he would need look no further than the tight ends on UK’s roster — Justin Rigg, Keaton Upshaw, Brendan Bates and Nik Ognenovic.
So let’s take quick look at each one to see what they bring to the football “table.”
— Justin Rigg, a 6’6″ 263 lb. Senior from Springboro, Ohio. Here’s what UK Tight Ends and Associate Head Coach Vince Marrow had to say about Justin Rigg last season. “I’m going to be honest with you, Justin is better than C.J. Conrad. He’s more of what you look for in an all-around NFL tight end: 6-6, 260, long wingspan, soft hands, he can block at the point of attack. Justin Rigg is really, really — we’re going to do some good things with him.”
That’s a pretty good endorsement for Justin Rigg, a player who is very physical, can block, catch the ball and make yards after the catch. He should be a player to watch this season if Eddie Gran decides to throw more to the tight ends.
— Keaton Upshaw. Upshaw is a 6-6, 234-pound former three-star tight end out of Lima, Ohio that played in 13 games last season as a redshirt freshman. Here’s what Eddie Gran said about Upshaw last year. “Keaton Upshaw, we’re all kind of mesmerized by him. He’s what you’re hunting. He’s first off the bus.”
He had his first touchdown catch last year against the Florida Gators and hopefully will have many more this season as a redshirt sophomore.
— Brenden Bates is a 6’4″ 248 lb. redshirt sophomore out of Cincinnati who was known for his pass catching ability in high school. He had 11 touchdowns in 17 catches during his senior season. Last season he played in 13 games, mostly on special teams. Here’s what Mark Stoops had to say about Bates on National Signing Day, “Brenden is much like C.J.(Conrad) in that he is a great team player and he’ll do anything to help the football team win. But very, very good football player, got unbelievable size. He’s, again, that prototypical tight end. Both him and Keaton (Upshaw) are exactly what you’re looking for at tight end. You watch their highlights, you see their size and how physical they are and how big they are already.”
— Last but not least is 6’5″ 249 lb. redshirt freshman Nik Ognenovic from Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Ognenovic played in two games last season and had one catch for 8 yards.
So there you have it. Four different tight ends, all with great pass catching ability and excellent size to be great run blockers also. All four have the ability to be top notch SEC players for the Wildcats if Eddie Gran decides to throw the ball more this season.
And he just might.
Last season before the season ending injury suffered by quarterback Terry Wilson Gran said, “Again, I think you’ve seen my mentality of, yes, we are going to be physical, we do need to run the football. But play-action pass using tight ends that can run, I think all of them can do that. You get them involved that way, use your personnel”.
And there it is. “Use your personnel.” That means that this season, barring any unforeseen injuries, the Wildcat offense should be throwing to the tight ends out of a play-action set. That also means that the defenses UK faces will have to consistently know where both tight ends are on every play because you never know when one of them will release down the middle of the field for a wide open touchdown. We’ve seen that throw down the seam before and how productive it can be.
Eddie Gran talked about the performance of the tight end group after the scrimmage on September 1st. He said, “I’m excited about where they are right now, gotta get better, you know, like all of them, but we still have to be able to run the ball and be physical in this league and with ten games like that in a row we are going to need all four, I’ll be a war. You know they’ve got double duty at that position.”
So hopefully when the bullets start to fly at the end of September the coaching staff will remember that it is a war and in the words of Eddie Gran, “They can be a weapon.”
Keep your fingers crossed.
Vaught’s note: Keith Peel is a regular contributor to vaughtsviews.com.
